{"id":224776,"date":"2020-04-17T07:16:24","date_gmt":"2020-04-17T01:46:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.qcsglobal.com\/?p=224776"},"modified":"2020-04-18T17:10:17","modified_gmt":"2020-04-18T11:40:17","slug":"6-reasons-being-in-gmails-promotions-tab-is-a-good-thing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qcsglobal.com\/blogs\/6-reasons-being-in-gmails-promotions-tab-is-a-good-thing\/","title":{"rendered":"6 Reasons Being in Gmail\u2019s Promotions Tab Is a Good Thing"},"content":{"rendered":"


\nMarketers have been concerned about their promotional emails landing in Gmail\u2019s Promotions tab since Google launched Tabs in 2013. Back then, the concern was almost a hysteria, with rampant fears of Tabs causing a crash in email engagement<\/a> and email revenues.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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Thankfully, concerns have cooled, with marketers seeing little to no bottom line impact from Tabs. However, we still see marketers asking about how to get their promotional emails into the Primary tab and our clients occasionally see tabbing as a deliverability issue in need of a fix. Since December, our Email Deliverability Services team has experienced a spike in questions about Tabs due to inconsistent placement of emails.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve had a number of our clients ask, What\u2019s going on?\u201d says Clea Moore, Director of Deliverability Strategy for Email Deliverability Services, Oracle CX Marketing Consulting. \u201cWe\u2019re seeing our promotional emails in the Primary tab, our promotional emails in the Social tab, and our transactional emails in the Promotions tab.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

She added that all the inconsistencies have caused a few clients to ask, \u201cIs there a way for our promotional emails to continue going to the Primary tab?\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Comments like that make us hope that this episode at Gmail won\u2019t encourage marketers to try to manipulate their tab placement, because we believe concerns over Gmail\u2019s Promotions tab are overblown. Here\u2019s why:<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

1. Email users are incredibly comfortable and familiar with how Tabs work.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/b><\/span><\/span><\/h3>\n

When Gmail first launched Tabs, marketers were concerned that subscribers wouldn\u2019t know where to find their emails if they weren\u2019t in the Primary tab. While that was perhaps a legitimate concern back in 2013, it\u2019s a fairly patronizing view today, as consumers have had more than half a decade to get used to Tabs and other inbox providers like Outlook.com and Yahoo Mail have adopted or experimented with tabbed interfaces, too.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Consumers\u2019 behavior toward their junk folders\u2014the original second \u201ctab\u201d\u2014 should give marketers great comfort. Email users understand full well that inbox providers\u2019 spam filters aren\u2019t perfect, so they check their spam folder often and rescue wanted emails by marking them as \u201cNot spam\u201d routinely. They do the same thing with their Tabs, checking them even more often and moving emails from one tab to the tab they want those emails to be in going forward.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

I\u2019m sure that by indirectly comparing tabs to junk folders I\u2019ve excited any deliverability concerns you might have around Tabs, so let me immediately dispel those concerns.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

2. Every tab is part of the inbox, so tab placement issues are not a sign of deliverability problems.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/b><\/span><\/span><\/h3>\n

However, that\u2019s not to say that inbox placement can\u2019t affect deliverability. Indirectly, it can. That\u2019s because…<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

3. You want your emails to be where your subscribers expect them to be.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/b><\/span><\/span><\/h3>\n

\u201cTab users expect their promotional messaging to show up in the Promotions tab and look for it there,\u201d says Brian Sullivan, Strategic Director of Email Deliverability Services, Oracle CX Marketing Consulting. \u201cAn expectation that placing promotions in the Primary tab will get better engagement or conversions is misguided.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

In fact, not only are brands unlikely to see positive benefits from having their promotional emails in the Primary tab, they are likely to see negative consequences, says Moore.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a bigger risk of increased attrition compared to any potential lift in opens you might see when promotional email is placed in the Primary tab,\u201d she says. \u201cWe would expect higher unsubscribe rates, and probably higher spam complaint rates, too, since that\u2019s unfortunately a common unsubscribe mechanism.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Not only is having your promotional emails in the Promotions tab less risky, but…<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

4. When consumers spend time in the Promotions tab, it\u2019s a sign of higher shopping intent.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/b><\/span><\/span><\/h3>\n

\u201cBy asking subscribers to move your email from the Promotional to the Primary tab,\u201d I wrote, \u201cyou\u2019re essentially closing your store at the mall and deploying door-to-door salesmen that interrupt your subscribers\u2019 conversations with their friends and loved ones. You\u2019ll surely be more visible, but also probably more intrusive and ultimately less welcome.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Any dip in top-of-the-funnel engagement that\u2019s caused by being in the Promotions tab\u2014and it\u2019s not clear that there is any\u2014is made up for in an increase in bottom-of-the-funnel engagement from higher conversion rates. That\u2019s a trade that every brand should be more than happy to make.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

A new benefit of having your promotional emails appropriately land in the Promotions tab is…<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

5. Email Annotations can help your emails stand out in Gmail, but only work in the Promotions tab.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/b><\/span><\/span><\/h3>\n

By adding JSON and microdata coding to their promotional emails, brands can enable special content when those emails appear in the Top Promotions portion of Gmail\u2019s Promotions tab, but not when they land in other tabs. The image previews and deal badges powered by Email Annotations help your emails standout compared to those without them.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe are excited to see our clients testing annotations using our platform,\u201d says Heather Goff, Strategic Director of Email Deliverability Services, Oracle CX Marketing Consulting. \u201cAs long as your reputation is good enough, when you include the annotations code then your email will show your logo and coupon codes and featured images and really stand out among the other emails in the promotions tab. Why not test it out and potentially gain a higher engagement and conversion rate?\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

While we can\u2019t wholeheartedly recommend that every marketer fully adopt Email Annotations for every email, we do recommend that all marketers use a baseline amount Email Annotation coding in every email they send. Read our full discussion of <\/span><\/span><\/span>the opportunities and concerns around Email Annotations<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

So that\u2019s the carrot. Now the stick…<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

6. Google doesn\u2019t appreciate gamesmanship or being manipulated.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/b><\/span><\/span><\/h3>\n

There are lots of \u201ctips\u201d out there about how you can trick Gmail into placing your promotional emails in the Primary tab, such as by removing all the images from your emails. Hopefully we\u2019ve already convinced you of the benefits of being in the appropriate tab, so you won\u2019t consider radical changes to your email design that are likely to hurt performance and your brand\u2019s image. However, if we haven\u2019t, you should absolutely keep in mind that any perceived success you\u2019re able to achieve in tricking Gmail will likely be short-lived.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAny energy spent attempting to reroute your promo emails to the Primary tab will be futile when Gmail tweaks their algorithm or its users just move your messages back to where they want them,\u201d says Sullivan.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

And, honestly, that\u2019s the best-case scenario. The worse-case scenario is that Google penalizes your Gmail reputation\u2014or your Google search ranking as well. It\u2019s been known to happen. Gmail has even penalized other Google brands that have manipulated Gmail\u2019s algorithms.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Our Email Deliverability Services team is usually able to convince our clients to leave this issue alone and be at peace with letting Gmail and their users tab emails where they deem them most appropriate. We hope we\u2019ve convinced you too, as any attempts to manipulate tab placement is likely to end up poorly, in addition to distracting you from focusing your attention on wiser tactics and more pressing trends.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

Marketers have been concerned about their promotional emails landing in Gmail\u2019s Promotions tab since Google launched Tabs in 2013. Back then, the concern was almost a hysteria, with rampant fears of Tabs causing a crash in email engagement and email revenues.\u00a0 Thankfully, concerns have cooled, with marketers seeing little to no bottom line impact from […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":224777,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17,11,10],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qcsglobal.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/224776"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qcsglobal.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qcsglobal.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qcsglobal.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qcsglobal.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=224776"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/qcsglobal.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/224776\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":224801,"href":"https:\/\/qcsglobal.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/224776\/revisions\/224801"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qcsglobal.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/224777"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qcsglobal.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=224776"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qcsglobal.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=224776"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qcsglobal.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=224776"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}

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One positive thing that has come out of the ongoing concerns that marketers have with their emails landing in the Promotions tab is that it partially spurred Google to create <\/span><\/span><\/span>Email Annotations<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a>. It\u2019s a nice carrot, especially considering that marketers are rarely offered anything but fewer sticks from inbox providers.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

This was one of my central arguments in <\/span><\/span><\/span>an August 2013 MediaPost column I wrote<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a> when lots of major brands started asking their subscribers to re-tab their emails into Gmail\u2019s Primary tab with the aim of increasing open rates.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Stemming probably in large part simply from the name of the \u201cPrimary\u201d tab, some marketers have always thought of the other tabs as being secondary folders akin to junk folders. That\u2019s not true. Tabs simply represent the partitioning of the inbox into several smaller inboxes. Where a brand\u2019s emails land within that inbox is irrelevant in terms of deliverability<\/a>.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n